Experts

HealTorture draws experts from across the country and around the world to speak and write on topics in the field of torture rehabilitation. Click on an expert's name to learn more about them and check out their presentations and/or articles.

Emily Good is a lawyer and human rights advocate based in Minnesota. Ms. Good is currently the Legal Projects Manager at the Minnesota Legal Services State Support agency. Ms. Good was a Staff Attorney for Research, Education & Advocacy at the Advocates for Human Rights from 2012-2015. While at the Advocates, she worked on the One Voice Minnesota Monitoring Project, assessing how welcoming Minnesota is for immigrants and refugees using a human rights framework. Ms.

Dr. Elzbieta M. Gozdziak is the Director of Research at the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) and Editor of International Migration, a peer reviewed, scholarly journal devoted to research and policy analysis of contemporary issues affecting international migration. Formerly, she held a senior position with the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Amber Gray is a licensed mental health professional and psychotherapist, board certified dance movement therapist, authorized Continuum Movement teacher and public health professional with extensive experience in clinical service provision, program development and management (including evaluation) and training.

She has worked clinically with survivors of organized violence, torture, war and combat related trauma, ritual abuse, domestic violence, and community violence for over twenty years.

Michael Alan Grodin, M.D., the descendant of four generations of Rabbis and Jewish Educators, is Director of the Medical Ethics and Human Rights Programs at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, where he is also a Professor of Psychiatry, Family Medicine, Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights. He is Co-Director of the joint project in Jewish Legal Bioethics of the Institute of Jewish Law at the Boston University School of Law.

Laura Pizer Gueron has been a physical therapist for 34 years. She graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983 with a BS in PT, received a master’s degree in Public Health Education from the University of Minnesota in 1990, and then her clinical doctorate in PT from Shenandoah University in 2010. She completed her Therapeutic Pain Specialist certification in 2016.

Laura has been affiliated with the Center for Victims of Torture for 27 years, including 22 years as a volunteer physical therapist with clients in Minnesota and 5 years as the Physiotherapy Clinical Advisor for

Ellen Silver Highfield has over 30 years experience as an acupuncturist. She is the Director of Acupuncture Programs and Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center. She is also an Associate in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and Adjunct Professor at the New England School of Acupuncture. She was instrumental in the inception of four free-care clinics at Boston Medical Center and has worked on NIH-funded projects to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in various populations.

As monitoring and evaluation advisory, Mr. Higson-Smith works to strengthen the capacity of Partners in Trauma Healing partner centers to evaluate the effectiveness of their clinical interventions. He brings to the position over 20 years of experience in the torture treatment field including previous work with CVT. In 2005, he began his partnership with CVT as the International Capacity Building African Regional Consultant. More recently, Mr. Higson-Smith has served as the clinical consultant to the Trauma Healing Initiative - Africa

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CVT National Capacity Building Project received $419,412 through competitive funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant #90ZT0142. The project will be financed with 90.6% of Federal funds and 9.4 % and $43,593 by non-governmental sources. The contents of this website are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

The National Capacity Building Project is a project of The Center for Victims of Torture. No official endorsement by ORR, DHHS, or CVT for the information on this website is intended or should be inferred.